ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Short History of Picture Books for Kids

Updated on January 21, 2016
Struwwelpeter
Struwwelpeter | Source

Picture tells more than thousand words

Picture books are known practically from the invention of printing technique. Maps and simple drawings were included at first as an addition to the text and only in a 19th century their format becomes more similar to the one which is known today.

There was, of course, a lot of experimenting in this area of literature - fiction and non-fiction. For some time, children's encyclopedias with woodcuts were very popular and there was also a decade of so-called toy-books, but the real breakthrough came much later. There were several reasons for this situation.

The first reason was definitely lack of literate people, especially children. Ability to read and write was a rare commodity less than two centuries ago. Next reason was low quality of print. Although many skillful artists tried to use many more or less original tricks, high resolution was next to impossible. Last, but no least - high prices of picture books were not helping at popularization.

Slowly and steadily development brought progress in all mentioned areas and in 1845 Heinrich Hoffmann, desperate because he couldn't find a picture book, which looked good enough for present to his three old son, decided to make one on his own. He wrote and illustrated a book titled Struwwelpeter (in English: Shockheaded Peter). His friends loved it and convinced him to publish it for wider audience. Thanks to its originality and humor Shockheaded Peter became a hit on the malnourished market. It was translated to several foreign languages and is today considered as the first picture book for kids.

This title (as many of its successors) was very educational and it set the foundations for the modern picture books. When people read them, they still expect some kind of moral or educational messages, just like in all other books for children.

Although today the messages from Shockheaded Peter don't fit the guidelines of education for our youngster anymore (humor is just too black), it still makes and interesting and entertaining reading - mostly for grown ups.

In many countries all over the world Struwwelpeter is still in print and Hoffmann is still (deservedly) regarded as one of the most influential German illustrators.

Lovely pastels are characteristic for Beatrix Potter
Lovely pastels are characteristic for Beatrix Potter

How modern picture book came to life

It was 1902 when today still widely known The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter was first published. If Hoffmann's work was the first ever, Potter's was the first in a modern era.

It helped to established still applicable standards for picture books all over the world:

- very high percent of illustrations (pictures cover more area than text in the book),

- one simple and short story, which can be understood even by a three-year-old child,

- very clear moral (educational message of the story),

Picture book became a serious business and many unwritten rules appeared:

- it is printed on 32 pages (the reason is in the folding of the sheets of paper which lead to best printing / book price ratio and expected profits),

- a length of the text is, in general, limited to about 150 lines and in last years, we can notice the trend of further shortening with more and more picture books with the only fistful of words and full colored pages expanded throughout facing pages,

- the main character (it is only one to make the young reader easier to empathize with) in modern picture book in most cases became and animal, because in this case, the publisher can make the product attractive to boys and girls and there is also an option to make additional income by selling lovely plush toys which are promoted by a book.

It's almost an animated movie!

One of my friends is using pictures from his picture books in relatively simple but pretty effective way. He sorts them in a slide show with the ability to add music. But he doesn't add music because he has something even better - the story in dramatized version - with dialogues, sound effects, atmospheres, jingles and everything, which was already published as an audio book. This way he can use the material from his books in the fresh and appealing way for promotion with virtually no budget.


You can see an example in next video, but I have to warn you, it is in the Slovene language.

Formal definition of a picture book

Every illustrated book is not a picture book. To make some things easier, especially when some kind of competition is involved, publishers decided to imply the rule by which there should be at least 30 percent of pictures to qualify a certain work as a picture book.

In reality, this percent is in most cases much higher, sometimes even more than 90 percent.

You can also find picture books without any text at all!

The importance of design

Although the majority of book illustrators started as painters, they were for many years considered as less qualified artists who simply didn't have enough knowledge to make a success with painting. Walter Crane was the first who set specific standards for the book, especially picture book designs.

According to his belief a picture is not a mere addition to the text, it is integral part and both components should fuse into new media. Even that was not enough. Crane claimed every single detail counts and him paid special attention to the typography of fonts, ratio of graphics against text, influence of vignettes, ... He wrote several works on design and is today known as the man who used every inch of the paper with a clear goal.

One of the fathers of the genre

Flora's Feast: A Fairy's Festival of Flowers
Flora's Feast: A Fairy's Festival of Flowers
One of the most influential artists in the history of picture books is Walter Crane. He illustrated dozens of best-sellers and established many new rules not only as an illustrator but as a designer as well. Floral Feast one of his most books among collectors.
 

Here is another example from one of my friend's books

Picture book: A Squirrel Party - link goes to English translation of the story
Picture book: A Squirrel Party - link goes to English translation of the story | Source

Time for voting

Do you think modern picture books neglect a story and over-emphasize pictures?

See results

My resources

Images in this article are in Public domain (Hoffmann and Potter died more than 70 years ago and their works were first published before 1923) or used by permission of the artists.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)